December 25, 2008 • 19 mins
Although you're much more likely to die in an auto accident, odds are you're more afraid of flying -- but why? Check out this HowStuffWorks podcast to find out.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know?
From House Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, welcome to the podcast.
This is Stuff you Should Know. And I'm Josh Clark
(00:20):
and that's Chuck Bryant, Right, Chuck. That's a very formal introduction. Josh,
I like it said, I'd loosen up a little bit
made you're good. Check you remember we're talking about like
the worst way to die in a podcast several podcast back,
and uh, I said, for me, the worst way to
die would be a plane crash, right, because you're on
your way down and you're fully aware of the whole time,
probably of what's about to happen. I can't think of
(00:41):
anything worse than dying in a plane crash with a
bunch of strangers. Yeah, you know, you don't want to
die with people you don't know. Um, okay. So one
of the reasons I said that was because I've had
a terrible experience on a plane and nothing really untoward happened,
Like there wasn't a lot of turbulence or anything like that. Um,
but I I know it the hard way that I'm
actually afraid of flying. Most of the time. When I fly,
(01:04):
it's too you know, if I fly at all, it's
to Europe or to Mexico or something like that. Right,
so it's a long flight, I'll take a callot of
pin and you know, drink some Scotch and then that's it.
I wake up and I'm where I'm supposed to be.
It's like a time travel machine to you pretty much. Yeah, so, um,
and it works like a champ right. Um. But the
thing is that I'm never conscious or at the very
(01:26):
least cognizant or you know, doing anything but drooling the
whole way right. Well, on the way back actually from Mexico,
we had to lay over in Miami. I had no
pharmaceuticals and uh I didn't have I think it was
a cash flight, cash bar flight. I didn't have any money. Yeah,
what's the point. I just shelled out like half of
(01:47):
my life savings for this flight from Miami to Atlanta.
And you can't give me liquor for free, right right?
All right? So anyway, this this perfect storm of horribleness
transpires and I'm in the air and all the way
from Miami to Atlanta. Um, I'm I'm just completely convinced
over and over again, the plane's about to go down, right,
(02:08):
And I was actually looking up how fear works, right,
and I found out that when you have a fear response,
there's two things going on. Number one is this real
quick knee jerk reaction that alerts you to danger, and
our old friend fighter flights and um um fight or
flight response perks up. And then you've got a more
thoughtful process that takes a little longer, that's really analyzing
(02:29):
context and stuff like that. And then if it if it,
if it concludes you're not in danger, it tells your
your hypothalamus to settle down, be rational, right, and then
you calm down. But this kept happening over and over
and over again. So for three hours, it was like
every twenty seconds I was cresting the hill of a
roller coaster. It was one of the worst things that
(02:50):
ever happened to me. So a lesson learned. As far
as I'm concerned, I'll never travel. I'm prepared again. Um.
But but it turns out from what I understand, that
the chances of me actually going down in a plane,
but this isn't These facts and figures don't make me
feel any better at all. But rationally speaking, I have
a very little chance of going out on a plane,
(03:10):
don't yeah about you want another number? Are you speculating? No? No, no,
I know that. You know I was setting you up
right there. Yeah, that's a good one. UM. I appreciate that.
Your chances of dying, I'm sorry, no, I'm dying. Your
chances of even being involved than an airline crash, um
are one in eleven million. Uh And when you compare
that to your chances of actually been killed in a car,
(03:32):
And this is the one you always hear airline versus
car or one in five thousand. But for some reason,
I don't know. Maybe it's because I'm not driving the plane,
so I have no control over its a car. It's
I can maybe steer my way out of it. You think, well,
that's one of the big reasons. It's not me thinking this.
It's you know, people have studied this, and the lack
of control has a huge uh part at place, UM
(03:53):
as well as the fact that UM negative bias. So
a plane crash gets a lot a lot of coverage,
you know, so it seems like they're dropping out of
the sky with regularity because they don't you know cover
the news. The news didn't cover car crashes like now,
you're definitely not going to see that in the NBC
Nightly News. That's true. I've got I've got another another
(04:13):
way of looking at it. Um, with numbers. Do you
know you would have to fly on an airline every
day for thirty five thousand years to be guaranteed up
to that you're going to be in a plane crash?
That isn't to becoming evidence. That is an awesome, awesome staff.
That one came from air disaster dot com and um,
that is a site that I would never recommend anyone
(04:34):
go to if you have a fear of flying, because
you don't because you sin, well, yeah exactly. I like
to fly and it doesn't freak me out at all.
Actually I don't like to fly. I hate to fly,
but has nothing to do do with fear of crashing. What
is just the long process of it? Yeah, the process,
and I hate that and being stuck on the plane
next to people and uh, touching strangers and people are
(04:56):
obnoxious and the smells and I just hate it. Man.
I think you're at a club, rubber, how you don't
like to touching strangers? No, all right, well, good to
know you see a little by the little club rubber.
I've never heard that. Oh, I'll explain it later, okay, um,
so okay, well, all right, we understand that there's very
little chance that you're going to get into a plane rack,
but they still happen. It does happen. Some people have
(05:18):
a much closer relationship with fate and coincidence and chance
than others. So let's say one of our listeners finds
himself for herself in a plane that's going down. There's
some things that you may or may not want to do.
And actually before you even board, when you're booking a
tap you made, there's some stuff you want to take
into consideration, right, very true? Well like what uh, Well,
(05:40):
before we get to that real quick, people should know
just because your plane crashes doesn't mean you'll die either,
just so reassuring I know. Uh. In fact, between nineteen
eighty and two thousand, there were five six crashes in
the US and more than of them survived. That's crazy.
Most of these, I have to say this, we're take
off and landing crashes, but of the twenty six extreme crashes,
(06:02):
and I think that means you're at thirty three thousand
feet and then you go to zero feet. Uh, you
have more than fifty chance of surviving that. Even I
would lose my mind. Yeah, I would lose my mind
as I was walking away from that, you would. So.
Having said that, if you are on a plane and
you're a fan of ours and you're going down, we
feel very bad for you. But future you unless you're
(06:24):
actually listening to this on a plane that's going down.
If so, hats off to you. Right, you've really achieved
the you know, I don't know what the other two
things are, but near the other one. The first thing
most people want to find out about is there the
safest seat? Yeah? And is there? Well, it depends on
who you ask. If you ask the f a A,
their official stances, No, there's not the safest seat exactly.
(06:49):
That's what I think is. They can't really say that
because people be like, I'm not sitting there, exactly. I
don't want to sit in anything but the safe seat. Exactly.
This is a death seat. But people study this stuff
like you wouldn't believe. In popular mechanics, Great Magazine did
a study and over a thirty six year period, they
studied data plane crashes, commercial jet crashes um in the
(07:09):
United States, and passengers in the rear of a plane
are in fact, by their data, more likely to survive
than those in towards the front of the pretty significant. Yeah. Yeah,
so I guess any of you guys out there here
about a book plane tickets, look for the back of
the plane. Look for the back of the plane. The
people don't listen to this podcast die right. People like
sitting up front though, because you get the d board
(07:32):
is deep board? Is that a word? You get embarked?
This embarked off the plane quicker, and no one likes
standing in that long line or everyone down they also die,
Which one is it? You know you have to hear
bye bye b bye, like a few more times than
the people in the front. But you're going to survive
if the plane goes down. So I've got some tips
for you though, if you're on a plane before the
(07:54):
crash ever happens, there's a few things you can do
to improve your chances. Yeah, you're ready. Uh, this is
something Actually after I wrote this article, I started doing
this stuff. Oh yeah, man, definitely. I mean, I don't
I'm not a I don't believe in bad luck in jinxes,
But I thought I was jinxed I wrote this, Yeah,
I thought I'm the guy that wrote the article, and
then I'm going to be the one, ironically that perishes,
(08:16):
you know from So once you're on board, get to
your seat, find the exit row. This is a no brainer.
But here's a little trick. What you want to do
is you want to count how many rows are between
you and the exit row and submit that number in
your head, even if you're hopped up on pharmaceuticals and scotch.
So if you count eleven rows to the exit row,
(08:39):
a lot of times you might be in the dark.
You might be underwater, you know. Think about that. You
can feel the seats and feel one, two, three, five
up to eleven, and then you know you took a
left or right and you're at your exit right. And
don't be misled by you know, a detached arm. You
know if you're if you're in the dark, know the
difference between a detached arm and a plane seats right.
(09:00):
I did not put that tip in the article. I
should have. The crash position is changed over the years,
and not a lot of people know this. The did
you get an impression of why the crash position changed. Well,
my hope is that it's to make it more likely
that you'll survive. I doubt if I hope there weren't
politics or money behind it or anything like that. But
I think you used to put your head between your
(09:21):
legs and cover your between your knees and cover your head.
Now that's not true. What you're supposed to do is
you're supposed to extend your arms, uh, put your hands, um,
cross your hands over each other, and put them against
the seat, the seat back in front of you, and
then put your head against the back of your hands.
(09:42):
So you got your arms stretched out and I'm pressed
against seat in front of you and your head resting
on the back of your hands. That's the new official
crass position. Yeah. Now I can actually see the lobby
of the in Flight Magazine Publishers Association having that changed.
You know, you're going down like wow, like can get
that for that cheap? I want to know who does
the artwork on those things. It's awesome. It's always the same,
(10:04):
and there's like there's probably one dude in Vermont that
does all that artwork. For one for the in flight
little brochure you get, Oh, the calm ist Hindu cows people.
The graphics. I love that that drawing, but yeah, it's
it's very Uh. Here's a little tip for you. Before
you get on the plane. You should dress appropriately. And
(10:25):
then that sounds silly. If you're going to Maui, you
want to have on your Hawaiian shirt and your flip flops.
But during after a plane crash, there's glass everywhere, there's
jet fuel, there's fire, You're gonna want to be covered.
So you should never wear open toad shoes. Um, you
should wear long sleeves and long sleeve shirt as well. Yeah,
it makes sense if you're smart. Many people want hear
(10:48):
this advice though, because, like I said, they want to
be comfy on you know, the transcontinental flights. Uh. If
you if you have a family family, say you and
your wife have like three kids, three or four kids,
and you're getting on the plane, you want to divide
the responsibility up between the parents because it's a lot
harder for one like the father to try and wrangle
four family members. Uh, and you might get separated. So
(11:10):
Dad's in charge of little Timmy and Johnny, and mom's
in charge of Sue and uh Jane. Yeah, and if
you if you have a lazy spouse, you may want
to reconsider flying as a family. It's a good idea.
Everything maybe on your shoulders. Yeah, and uh, listen, and
this is a big one. Listen to the pre flight instructions.
And now that's typically I guess you're trying to get
(11:31):
your scotch Um. I'm annoyed with the people on both
sides of myself. But this is when you need to
be listening, because all planes are different, and there actually
are some variations and instruction depending on what kind of Yeah.
I actually, yeah, I thought it was all the same.
So it's a good advice now. And and if the
oxygen mass drops, you know you're in trouble, put it
on yourself first. And if you love your wife more
(11:54):
than life itself, you may have an instinct to put
it on her. But you have to save yourself first
before you can save any of anounced is the general thinking. Yeah,
so those are those are starwinistic that last save yourself,
save yourself so you can save others. Right, Okay, well, Chuck,
as you were saying there, there's a substantial percentage of
people who are in serious crashes that have survived, right,
(12:17):
and one of them, uh was one one specific one
was made into a movie, One plane crash. Right, what
was it called Survive Alive? Yes, there's some I've I
think it's alive. Okay, the the Uruguayan rugby team. You
want to tell them about that? I well thought you
were okay, Well, actually he's your favorite there's your favorite story.
(12:40):
It's a great story. Um, and it's a great movie
to actually um this Uh, this Uruguayan soccer team probably
should have known a rugby team. I'm sorry, Um, they
probably shouldn't known. They were on a plane for Chili
and uh they were in the Andes Mountains, which is
like just the they should call those things the widow makers.
There's alwaysh yeah. Um. And it was Friday October, which
(13:03):
if there's a day to not fly, it's that day,
Friday the thirteenth in October. That's a bad day. Yeah, sorry, sure, yeah, okay.
So their plane goes down, right, there's forty five people
on board. It's not just the rugby team, but there's
there's some others. Um and uh, basically for I think
seventy two days. Um, the survivors some of them slowly
(13:28):
died off. I think twelve initially died in the crash,
and then over the course of time, another ten died
over the next seventy two days. They didn't have any
food or anything, so they ended up very famously resorting
to cannibalism, which before they were they were finally find Yeah, well,
you know, I love canible ism um and uh, yeah,
(13:48):
the movie was alive. We hear rumors that there may
be a follow up documentary about it coming. They're unsubstantiated,
but keep an eye out for it. I think there
has been a previous documentary some point too. Yeah, well,
they just had like some some reunion I believe what
was the maybe reunion or something or reunion because a
(14:09):
lot of these guys are still alive and they reunited
for you know, I don't want to ever be around
you people again. To her, right, you know, exactly all right?
But okay, so what other what other things can you
do to you know, maybe stay alive besides campbell is
um unless you're forced to resort to it. Right, Well,
let's say your plane is crashed and you're on the ground.
(14:31):
The first ninety seconds is vital. The golden what they
call that golden time, and uh, airlines are are responsible
for getting everyone off in those ninety seconds. That's the
goal for the airline industry. Uh. So that's what you
really need to be concerned about. There's gonna be fire,
potentially jet fuel, nasty stuff burning, So you want to
(14:53):
get down low because the fumes from this stuff is
more likely to kill you than being burnt. Sure. Yeah,
so what are airplane and see covers made of. Yeah,
exactly nothing. You want to put in your pipe and smoke,
you know what I'm saying. Um, So, you know you've
got all this nasty, toxic stuff in the air, so
you want to get low, just like it to teach
you at home, you know, stop dropping roll. Well I
think it's if you're on fire. Yeah, but they teach
(15:15):
you to get down to go under the smoke. The
same principle here. Uh. If you do make it off
the plane, which is the ideal scenario, you want to
get the heck away from there because it could blow up.
It could you know, any number of things could happen,
So you want to get as far away from the
plane as you can safely and get behind something. If
there's something there, there's you know, a huge rock or
a big tree. I mean, you just want to try
(15:37):
and shield yourself in case there's a big explosion, and um,
do not do not try and get your baggage off
your carry on bags. It's good. What if you have
your pet on board? H boy, you're asking the wrong guy.
I would try and save my pet, but they say, no,
matter what it is, leave it behind, it's not worth it.
(15:59):
And uh man, I didn't. I wasn't anticipating that. Again,
beer brush off the Luckily my pets don't fly, so
I want to ever have to, uh to deal with that.
They also say don't drink. I saw that and I
was no, I just can't. Okay, well I can't normal right, Yeah,
(16:20):
so that makes sense. I don't like to drink aboard
a flight. It kind of I don't know. I don't
like it so without the pressure, and maybe it's the
expense and those little bottles. I just I don't get
it to love those little bottles. Uh. They also say
not to inflate your life fest until um you're outside
the cabin, because yeah, I can restrict your movement, but
you don't want when you're running out of a plane
on fire. No, you don't want to be at the
(16:41):
exit and then your life fest gets hung on the
seat before the explosion. And I think, Uh, that's about
all the tips I have for you. You know, I
do have one more thing, chuck. Um. People who survived
plane crashes actually tend to um to uh score better
here on emotional quotient tests things like post traumatic symptoms
(17:06):
than people who have not been in plane crashes. They
actually scored significantly higher. Um. There was a old Dominion
University study of fifteen crash survivors across the United States,
and um, these people just basically had a more positive
outlook on life and didn't show the signs of stress
(17:28):
like these people who who served as the control control
group flew I think five times a year or more,
and who had never been in a plane crash. Um, yeah,
it makes sense. They theorized that it was because they've
been through this huge ordeal, and um, they kind of
learned not to sweat the small stuff. Seriously, it makes sense,
doesn't it. Um. And people again who had shown control,
(17:51):
who were in control, like you you were suggesting, they
actually hadn't the highest score of all if they thought
of themselves of having stayed in control or maybe help
somebody off the plane. Apparently, you just cannot have a
better outlook on life than if you've helped someone off
a burning plane when you survived a plane crash. Yes,
let's seek it out. I wish I knew what that feeling.
(18:11):
Kind of felt like yeah, kind of but at the
same time kind of like kind of not yeah exactly. Uh,
there's just one more quickie, Josh. And people never let
these listeners go. I would be remiss if I didn't
say that. Um, try to stay calm. That's the number
one thing you can do because panic. Uh people can't
even unbuckle their seatbelt many times because they're in such
a state of panic. And uh, you know, stay calm.
(18:33):
If you can, Chuck, you may have just saved some lives. Wow,
you should feel good about yourself. Well, you know, if
you have any plane crash survivors that survived because of
my advice, please let me know. And I might feel
like that guy that saved the person from the burning Yeah,
talk about a positive outlook online. And before we let
you go, let us just give you a little peek
(18:54):
at what Chuck and I think is the coolest article
on the site. It's called do We really get wise
or with age. It is by our colleague writer Molly Edmonds.
It's just a dynamo and our articles. She's a dynamo,
she really is, and her article is super cool too,
So both Chuck and I give that one that thumbs
up and strongly recommend it. And you can find that
(19:15):
article how to Survive a plane crash. Chuck's written a
whole slew of survival articles and you can find them
all by typing some clever words into the search bar
at how stuff works dot com. For more on this
and thousands of other topics, is it how stuff works
dot com. Let us know what you think. Send an
email to podcast at how stuff works dot com. Brought
(19:40):
to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,
are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know?
From House Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, welcome to the podcast.
This is Stuff you Should Know. And I'm Josh Clark
(00:20):
and that's Chuck Bryant, Right, Chuck. That's a very formal introduction. Josh,
I like it said, I'd loosen up a little bit
made you're good. Check you remember we're talking about like
the worst way to die in a podcast several podcast back,
and uh, I said, for me, the worst way to
die would be a plane crash, right, because you're on
your way down and you're fully aware of the whole time,
probably of what's about to happen. I can't think of
(00:41):
anything worse than dying in a plane crash with a
bunch of strangers. Yeah, you know, you don't want to
die with people you don't know. Um, okay. So one
of the reasons I said that was because I've had
a terrible experience on a plane and nothing really untoward happened,
Like there wasn't a lot of turbulence or anything like that. Um,
but I I know it the hard way that I'm
actually afraid of flying. Most of the time. When I fly,
(01:04):
it's too you know, if I fly at all, it's
to Europe or to Mexico or something like that. Right,
so it's a long flight, I'll take a callot of
pin and you know, drink some Scotch and then that's it.
I wake up and I'm where I'm supposed to be.
It's like a time travel machine to you pretty much. Yeah, so, um,
and it works like a champ right. Um. But the
thing is that I'm never conscious or at the very
(01:26):
least cognizant or you know, doing anything but drooling the
whole way right. Well, on the way back actually from Mexico,
we had to lay over in Miami. I had no
pharmaceuticals and uh I didn't have I think it was
a cash flight, cash bar flight. I didn't have any money. Yeah,
what's the point. I just shelled out like half of
(01:47):
my life savings for this flight from Miami to Atlanta.
And you can't give me liquor for free, right right?
All right? So anyway, this this perfect storm of horribleness
transpires and I'm in the air and all the way
from Miami to Atlanta. Um, I'm I'm just completely convinced
over and over again, the plane's about to go down, right,
(02:08):
And I was actually looking up how fear works, right,
and I found out that when you have a fear response,
there's two things going on. Number one is this real
quick knee jerk reaction that alerts you to danger, and
our old friend fighter flights and um um fight or
flight response perks up. And then you've got a more
thoughtful process that takes a little longer, that's really analyzing
(02:29):
context and stuff like that. And then if it if it,
if it concludes you're not in danger, it tells your
your hypothalamus to settle down, be rational, right, and then
you calm down. But this kept happening over and over
and over again. So for three hours, it was like
every twenty seconds I was cresting the hill of a
roller coaster. It was one of the worst things that
(02:50):
ever happened to me. So a lesson learned. As far
as I'm concerned, I'll never travel. I'm prepared again. Um.
But but it turns out from what I understand, that
the chances of me actually going down in a plane,
but this isn't These facts and figures don't make me
feel any better at all. But rationally speaking, I have
a very little chance of going out on a plane,
(03:10):
don't yeah about you want another number? Are you speculating? No? No, no,
I know that. You know I was setting you up
right there. Yeah, that's a good one. UM. I appreciate that.
Your chances of dying, I'm sorry, no, I'm dying. Your
chances of even being involved than an airline crash, um
are one in eleven million. Uh And when you compare
that to your chances of actually been killed in a car,
(03:32):
And this is the one you always hear airline versus
car or one in five thousand. But for some reason,
I don't know. Maybe it's because I'm not driving the plane,
so I have no control over its a car. It's
I can maybe steer my way out of it. You think, well,
that's one of the big reasons. It's not me thinking this.
It's you know, people have studied this, and the lack
of control has a huge uh part at place, UM
(03:53):
as well as the fact that UM negative bias. So
a plane crash gets a lot a lot of coverage,
you know, so it seems like they're dropping out of
the sky with regularity because they don't you know cover
the news. The news didn't cover car crashes like now,
you're definitely not going to see that in the NBC
Nightly News. That's true. I've got I've got another another
(04:13):
way of looking at it. Um, with numbers. Do you
know you would have to fly on an airline every
day for thirty five thousand years to be guaranteed up
to that you're going to be in a plane crash?
That isn't to becoming evidence. That is an awesome, awesome staff.
That one came from air disaster dot com and um,
that is a site that I would never recommend anyone
(04:34):
go to if you have a fear of flying, because
you don't because you sin, well, yeah exactly. I like
to fly and it doesn't freak me out at all.
Actually I don't like to fly. I hate to fly,
but has nothing to do do with fear of crashing. What
is just the long process of it? Yeah, the process,
and I hate that and being stuck on the plane
next to people and uh, touching strangers and people are
(04:56):
obnoxious and the smells and I just hate it. Man.
I think you're at a club, rubber, how you don't
like to touching strangers? No, all right, well, good to
know you see a little by the little club rubber.
I've never heard that. Oh, I'll explain it later, okay, um,
so okay, well, all right, we understand that there's very
little chance that you're going to get into a plane rack,
but they still happen. It does happen. Some people have
(05:18):
a much closer relationship with fate and coincidence and chance
than others. So let's say one of our listeners finds
himself for herself in a plane that's going down. There's
some things that you may or may not want to do.
And actually before you even board, when you're booking a
tap you made, there's some stuff you want to take
into consideration, right, very true? Well like what uh, Well,
(05:40):
before we get to that real quick, people should know
just because your plane crashes doesn't mean you'll die either,
just so reassuring I know. Uh. In fact, between nineteen
eighty and two thousand, there were five six crashes in
the US and more than of them survived. That's crazy.
Most of these, I have to say this, we're take
off and landing crashes, but of the twenty six extreme crashes,
(06:02):
and I think that means you're at thirty three thousand
feet and then you go to zero feet. Uh, you
have more than fifty chance of surviving that. Even I
would lose my mind. Yeah, I would lose my mind
as I was walking away from that, you would. So.
Having said that, if you are on a plane and
you're a fan of ours and you're going down, we
feel very bad for you. But future you unless you're
(06:24):
actually listening to this on a plane that's going down.
If so, hats off to you. Right, you've really achieved
the you know, I don't know what the other two
things are, but near the other one. The first thing
most people want to find out about is there the
safest seat? Yeah? And is there? Well, it depends on
who you ask. If you ask the f a A,
their official stances, No, there's not the safest seat exactly.
(06:49):
That's what I think is. They can't really say that
because people be like, I'm not sitting there, exactly. I
don't want to sit in anything but the safe seat. Exactly.
This is a death seat. But people study this stuff
like you wouldn't believe. In popular mechanics, Great Magazine did
a study and over a thirty six year period, they
studied data plane crashes, commercial jet crashes um in the
(07:09):
United States, and passengers in the rear of a plane
are in fact, by their data, more likely to survive
than those in towards the front of the pretty significant. Yeah. Yeah,
so I guess any of you guys out there here
about a book plane tickets, look for the back of
the plane. Look for the back of the plane. The
people don't listen to this podcast die right. People like
sitting up front though, because you get the d board
(07:32):
is deep board? Is that a word? You get embarked?
This embarked off the plane quicker, and no one likes
standing in that long line or everyone down they also die,
Which one is it? You know you have to hear
bye bye b bye, like a few more times than
the people in the front. But you're going to survive
if the plane goes down. So I've got some tips
for you though, if you're on a plane before the
(07:54):
crash ever happens, there's a few things you can do
to improve your chances. Yeah, you're ready. Uh, this is
something Actually after I wrote this article, I started doing
this stuff. Oh yeah, man, definitely. I mean, I don't
I'm not a I don't believe in bad luck in jinxes,
But I thought I was jinxed I wrote this, Yeah,
I thought I'm the guy that wrote the article, and
then I'm going to be the one, ironically that perishes,
(08:16):
you know from So once you're on board, get to
your seat, find the exit row. This is a no brainer.
But here's a little trick. What you want to do
is you want to count how many rows are between
you and the exit row and submit that number in
your head, even if you're hopped up on pharmaceuticals and scotch.
So if you count eleven rows to the exit row,
(08:39):
a lot of times you might be in the dark.
You might be underwater, you know. Think about that. You
can feel the seats and feel one, two, three, five
up to eleven, and then you know you took a
left or right and you're at your exit right. And
don't be misled by you know, a detached arm. You
know if you're if you're in the dark, know the
difference between a detached arm and a plane seats right.
(09:00):
I did not put that tip in the article. I
should have. The crash position is changed over the years,
and not a lot of people know this. The did
you get an impression of why the crash position changed. Well,
my hope is that it's to make it more likely
that you'll survive. I doubt if I hope there weren't
politics or money behind it or anything like that. But
I think you used to put your head between your
(09:21):
legs and cover your between your knees and cover your head.
Now that's not true. What you're supposed to do is
you're supposed to extend your arms, uh, put your hands, um,
cross your hands over each other, and put them against
the seat, the seat back in front of you, and
then put your head against the back of your hands.
(09:42):
So you got your arms stretched out and I'm pressed
against seat in front of you and your head resting
on the back of your hands. That's the new official
crass position. Yeah. Now I can actually see the lobby
of the in Flight Magazine Publishers Association having that changed.
You know, you're going down like wow, like can get
that for that cheap? I want to know who does
the artwork on those things. It's awesome. It's always the same,
(10:04):
and there's like there's probably one dude in Vermont that
does all that artwork. For one for the in flight
little brochure you get, Oh, the calm ist Hindu cows people.
The graphics. I love that that drawing, but yeah, it's
it's very Uh. Here's a little tip for you. Before
you get on the plane. You should dress appropriately. And
(10:25):
then that sounds silly. If you're going to Maui, you
want to have on your Hawaiian shirt and your flip flops.
But during after a plane crash, there's glass everywhere, there's
jet fuel, there's fire, You're gonna want to be covered.
So you should never wear open toad shoes. Um, you
should wear long sleeves and long sleeve shirt as well. Yeah,
it makes sense if you're smart. Many people want hear
(10:48):
this advice though, because, like I said, they want to
be comfy on you know, the transcontinental flights. Uh. If
you if you have a family family, say you and
your wife have like three kids, three or four kids,
and you're getting on the plane, you want to divide
the responsibility up between the parents because it's a lot
harder for one like the father to try and wrangle
four family members. Uh, and you might get separated. So
(11:10):
Dad's in charge of little Timmy and Johnny, and mom's
in charge of Sue and uh Jane. Yeah, and if
you if you have a lazy spouse, you may want
to reconsider flying as a family. It's a good idea.
Everything maybe on your shoulders. Yeah, and uh, listen, and
this is a big one. Listen to the pre flight instructions.
And now that's typically I guess you're trying to get
(11:31):
your scotch Um. I'm annoyed with the people on both
sides of myself. But this is when you need to
be listening, because all planes are different, and there actually
are some variations and instruction depending on what kind of Yeah.
I actually, yeah, I thought it was all the same.
So it's a good advice now. And and if the
oxygen mass drops, you know you're in trouble, put it
on yourself first. And if you love your wife more
(11:54):
than life itself, you may have an instinct to put
it on her. But you have to save yourself first
before you can save any of anounced is the general thinking. Yeah,
so those are those are starwinistic that last save yourself,
save yourself so you can save others. Right, Okay, well, Chuck,
as you were saying there, there's a substantial percentage of
people who are in serious crashes that have survived, right,
(12:17):
and one of them, uh was one one specific one
was made into a movie, One plane crash. Right, what
was it called Survive Alive? Yes, there's some I've I
think it's alive. Okay, the the Uruguayan rugby team. You
want to tell them about that? I well thought you
were okay, Well, actually he's your favorite there's your favorite story.
(12:40):
It's a great story. Um, and it's a great movie
to actually um this Uh, this Uruguayan soccer team probably
should have known a rugby team. I'm sorry, Um, they
probably shouldn't known. They were on a plane for Chili
and uh they were in the Andes Mountains, which is
like just the they should call those things the widow makers.
There's alwaysh yeah. Um. And it was Friday October, which
(13:03):
if there's a day to not fly, it's that day,
Friday the thirteenth in October. That's a bad day. Yeah, sorry, sure, yeah, okay.
So their plane goes down, right, there's forty five people
on board. It's not just the rugby team, but there's
there's some others. Um and uh, basically for I think
seventy two days. Um, the survivors some of them slowly
(13:28):
died off. I think twelve initially died in the crash,
and then over the course of time, another ten died
over the next seventy two days. They didn't have any
food or anything, so they ended up very famously resorting
to cannibalism, which before they were they were finally find Yeah, well,
you know, I love canible ism um and uh, yeah,
(13:48):
the movie was alive. We hear rumors that there may
be a follow up documentary about it coming. They're unsubstantiated,
but keep an eye out for it. I think there
has been a previous documentary some point too. Yeah, well,
they just had like some some reunion I believe what
was the maybe reunion or something or reunion because a
(14:09):
lot of these guys are still alive and they reunited
for you know, I don't want to ever be around
you people again. To her, right, you know, exactly all right?
But okay, so what other what other things can you
do to you know, maybe stay alive besides campbell is
um unless you're forced to resort to it. Right, Well,
let's say your plane is crashed and you're on the ground.
(14:31):
The first ninety seconds is vital. The golden what they
call that golden time, and uh, airlines are are responsible
for getting everyone off in those ninety seconds. That's the
goal for the airline industry. Uh. So that's what you
really need to be concerned about. There's gonna be fire,
potentially jet fuel, nasty stuff burning, So you want to
(14:53):
get down low because the fumes from this stuff is
more likely to kill you than being burnt. Sure. Yeah,
so what are airplane and see covers made of. Yeah,
exactly nothing. You want to put in your pipe and smoke,
you know what I'm saying. Um, So, you know you've
got all this nasty, toxic stuff in the air, so
you want to get low, just like it to teach
you at home, you know, stop dropping roll. Well I
think it's if you're on fire. Yeah, but they teach
(15:15):
you to get down to go under the smoke. The
same principle here. Uh. If you do make it off
the plane, which is the ideal scenario, you want to
get the heck away from there because it could blow up.
It could you know, any number of things could happen,
So you want to get as far away from the
plane as you can safely and get behind something. If
there's something there, there's you know, a huge rock or
a big tree. I mean, you just want to try
(15:37):
and shield yourself in case there's a big explosion, and um,
do not do not try and get your baggage off
your carry on bags. It's good. What if you have
your pet on board? H boy, you're asking the wrong guy.
I would try and save my pet, but they say, no,
matter what it is, leave it behind, it's not worth it.
(15:59):
And uh man, I didn't. I wasn't anticipating that. Again,
beer brush off the Luckily my pets don't fly, so
I want to ever have to, uh to deal with that.
They also say don't drink. I saw that and I
was no, I just can't. Okay, well I can't normal right, Yeah,
(16:20):
so that makes sense. I don't like to drink aboard
a flight. It kind of I don't know. I don't
like it so without the pressure, and maybe it's the
expense and those little bottles. I just I don't get
it to love those little bottles. Uh. They also say
not to inflate your life fest until um you're outside
the cabin, because yeah, I can restrict your movement, but
you don't want when you're running out of a plane
on fire. No, you don't want to be at the
(16:41):
exit and then your life fest gets hung on the
seat before the explosion. And I think, Uh, that's about
all the tips I have for you. You know, I
do have one more thing, chuck. Um. People who survived
plane crashes actually tend to um to uh score better
here on emotional quotient tests things like post traumatic symptoms
(17:06):
than people who have not been in plane crashes. They
actually scored significantly higher. Um. There was a old Dominion
University study of fifteen crash survivors across the United States,
and um, these people just basically had a more positive
outlook on life and didn't show the signs of stress
(17:28):
like these people who who served as the control control
group flew I think five times a year or more,
and who had never been in a plane crash. Um, yeah,
it makes sense. They theorized that it was because they've
been through this huge ordeal, and um, they kind of
learned not to sweat the small stuff. Seriously, it makes sense,
doesn't it. Um. And people again who had shown control,
(17:51):
who were in control, like you you were suggesting, they
actually hadn't the highest score of all if they thought
of themselves of having stayed in control or maybe help
somebody off the plane. Apparently, you just cannot have a
better outlook on life than if you've helped someone off
a burning plane when you survived a plane crash. Yes,
let's seek it out. I wish I knew what that feeling.
(18:11):
Kind of felt like yeah, kind of but at the
same time kind of like kind of not yeah exactly. Uh,
there's just one more quickie, Josh. And people never let
these listeners go. I would be remiss if I didn't
say that. Um, try to stay calm. That's the number
one thing you can do because panic. Uh people can't
even unbuckle their seatbelt many times because they're in such
a state of panic. And uh, you know, stay calm.
(18:33):
If you can, Chuck, you may have just saved some lives. Wow,
you should feel good about yourself. Well, you know, if
you have any plane crash survivors that survived because of
my advice, please let me know. And I might feel
like that guy that saved the person from the burning Yeah,
talk about a positive outlook online. And before we let
you go, let us just give you a little peek
(18:54):
at what Chuck and I think is the coolest article
on the site. It's called do We really get wise
or with age. It is by our colleague writer Molly Edmonds.
It's just a dynamo and our articles. She's a dynamo,
she really is, and her article is super cool too,
So both Chuck and I give that one that thumbs
up and strongly recommend it. And you can find that
(19:15):
article how to Survive a plane crash. Chuck's written a
whole slew of survival articles and you can find them
all by typing some clever words into the search bar
at how stuff works dot com. For more on this
and thousands of other topics, is it how stuff works
dot com. Let us know what you think. Send an
email to podcast at how stuff works dot com. Brought
(19:40):
to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,
are you
Stuff You Should Know News
Hosts And Creators
Josh Clark
Chuck Bryant
Show Links
Order Our BookRSSStoreSYSK ArmyAboutPopular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Death, Sex & Money
Anna Sale explores the big questions and hard choices that are often left out of polite conversation.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.